With the finale having premiered April 22 on Amazon Prime Video, season four of “Invincible” picked up after Mark Grayson, or Invincible, voiced by Steven Yeun, fought his devastating battle with Conquest from season three, as he trained his younger brother Oliver, voiced by Christian Convery. Throughout the season, the Viltrumite war looms closer, expanding the universe with new major players like Lee Pace’s Grand Regent Thragg. While the show understands how to wow its audience with bloody fights and excellent world-building, it struggles with its pacing and underbaked storylines, resulting in a season that seems promising but builds up to a flashy yet underwhelming ending.
“Invincible” season four’s strongest aspects are its understanding of its title character. Mark’s arc was the backbone of the entire series and season four pushed him to his limit. After the trauma he’s faced, he’s no longer questioning whether he can protect those he loves but how far he’s willing to go to do so. The question of becoming a lethal protector loomed over the entire season, shaping each of the decisions he made, although the show lets this conflict sit unresolved after the first weaker half of the season.
Like Mark pulling his punches, the season hesitates before going out with full force. The first half of the season is dominated by filler and underdeveloped plotlines, introducing concepts and characters without fully developing them. Fan-Favorite villain Dinosaurus, voiced by Matthew Rhys, arrives with the promise of testing Mark’s rule about killing, but he feels like an extended cameo rather than any real test for Mark, quietly disappearing after his first appearance. In the most disappointing reappearance, Damien Darkblood, voiced by Clancy Brown, the demon detective from season one, returned in arguably the worst episodes of the entire season, let alone the series, as Mark interferes with war in hell, which somehow feels uneventful. This was incredibly disappointing, as the series creator, Robert Kirkman, hyped up audiences about how it was a cut plot line while he was writing the original comics, but by the way it was handled, it should’ve been left on the editing room floor.
The season picked up its momentum in episodes five through eight, as the Viltrumite war begins. The show pacing tightens, and the stakes become clearer as the Viltrumites go head to head with the Coalition of Planet’s forces in the Viltrumite war, which gives the season the direction it needed, finally allowing meaningful development to occur instead of muddying around in the background.
At first, the introduction of the series antagonist Grand Regent Thragg the current ruler of the Viltrumite Empire, seemed like another disappointing character introduction. The audience is told that he was born to be the strongest Viltrumite ever, and at, he seems restrained and detached from the Viltrumite war. Initially, it seems like a misstep, but the season proves it was intentional, purposely misleading its audience, but proving that he is worthy of the title of the strongest being there is. The scene where he defeats all the main characters after witnessing the destruction of his home planet is shocking, as we finally get to see what makes him so feared across the galaxy.
One of the biggest missed opportunities was the return of Conquest, voiced by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. After his brutal battle with Mark that pushed him to his physical and emotional limits, his revival at the hands of Cecil Steadman, voiced by Walton Goggins, should’ve felt much bigger. Instead, it feels brief, and while the spectacle of his second battle with Mark is intense, the limited screen time prevents it from reaching the same impact as his first appearance. Although his reappearance signals the turning point in quality for the show, it comes and goes way too quickly.
The latter half of the season benefits from this sense of scale as the Viltrumite war is on a new level of intensity that was missing from the earlier episodes. Returning characters like Battle Beast, voiced by Michael Dorn, added energy to the story as he continues his search for a worthy opponent. Space Racer, voiced by Winston Duke, expanded the cosmic scope, and the new Tech Jacket, voiced by Zoey Deutch, bringsan extra new dimension to the show’s universe. This mix of new and old characters creates new interesting dynamics, especially between Tech Jacket and Oliver.
Despite the improvements halfway through, the season still wasn’t able to overcome its weaker first half. The early episodes feel as though they were created to delay the Viltrumite war arc. Several plotlines were introduced that show potential but are underdeveloped, resolved too quickly or abandoned outright, preventing the season from building to a natural and satisfying conclusion. Instead of feeling like a complete narrative, the season felt set up for the future.
Ultimately, season four of “Invincible” is a mixed bag. It delivers strong character moments, especially with Mark himself, and expands the series mythos in new, meaningful ways, but these strengths are undermined by uneven pacing and little to no narrative cohesion. Leaving a season that feels like a pure setup rather than a complete narrative, creating new future plotlines rather than delivering on its own, hopefully, next year’s season five will deliver on the setup from this season.
Final Rating: 3.5/5
